It’s a bank holiday, your girl is newly unemployed, and she’s got a few movies she’s watched recently. Let’s check, shall we?
I’d heard this movie was great when it came out but I missed it in theaters. Now I am glad I did. The daughter of a heavily influential stopmotion filmaker is now her mother’s assistant, stifled creatively while not sure what she’d make if she got the chance. When a chance does come, however, the little girl in her apartment building keeps pestering her, telling her to make more and more disturbing things. THE BODY HORROR IN THIS MOVIE IS INTENSE. The last thirty minutes were a hard watch. While I very much appreciate all the actual stopmotion that went into this film, the whole thing was a lot and I would have to strongly caution folks to be aware of it before watching. I told a friend that this was very artsy ‘for good and ill’ and I stand by that.
I regret to inform you that the poster is the best part of this film. Ghost Game follows a couple in which the man is trying to get into the woman’s hobby: ghost game, where people breaking into other people’s houses, live unseen, and mess with the house’s inhabitants so they think they’re being haunted. Of course, you also must film it and put it online to show off to the other players. The local haunted house, long abandoned, has just been sold and they’re going to get the big score of haunting this family. Thing is, the house might already be haunted. It’s a good set up! But it’s terrible. The acting is terrible, the plotting is terrible, the filming is terrible. My father fell asleep twenty minutes in and I didn’t wake him because there was no point. A good premise, some legit creepy masks, a terrible film. What a waste.
After seeing this trailer approximately a million times in the past two months, Glitch and I couldn’t not go. We’d already come up with an inside joke about it (“Wolfman. You know, from the upstate Wolfmans?”) and god did the theaters want people to see this movie. It was … fine. It had some points it never quite made. It was very poorly cast as Julia Garner, who is a good actress, looked more like her husband’s older daughter than his wife and definitely not a workaholic absent mother. Did they dress the daughter in what one might call a little red riding hood? Yes, of course. Did this whole movie somehow take place almost completely in one night? YES??? The best parts were when they focused on how the transformation was affecting our wolf man, from the wolf vision to his hearing issues to his loss of time. I kept thinking they were about to make a point about loneliness or generational trauma and then they just … never quite hit the mark. Also, if werewolves don’t transform back when they die, how does the world not know about werewolves? Just so many questions, Wolf Man. So many.
Despite how it has been marketed, I wouldn’t call Presence a horror movie. Told completely from the point of view of a ghost, it follows a family that moves into a house that is haunted. Since you’re seeing through the eyes of the ghost, though, nothing is particularly big or frightening. It’s more of a family drama with a slight thriller aspect, as there is a mystery to be solved: who is the ghost? There’s no soundtrack, each scene just filled with the sounds of everyday life, which both heightens the tension and also makes it very hard for you to make a joke or eat candy in the theater, two things I always desperately want to do. Regardless, I did really like this movie, even if I wouldn’t put it in the horror category. It’s unique, well-told, and very much worth a watch.
What’s the only thing worse than being in a shipwreck and washing up on a deserted island? Being in a shipwreck and washing up on a deserted island with a monster on it. A very fun, very tense take on the ‘stuck on an island’ genre, this movie gets even better halfway through when (spoiler alert) more survivors show up and then just … don’t believe our hero that there’s a monster around. This movie is very original, very fun, and man is it fun to yell at the screen during. Highly recommend.
I saw the trailer for this movie, immediately sent it to Glitch and was like “We’re seeing this.” Twenty minutes into the movie (at a showing where we were the only two people in the theater,) I turned to them and went “…. I think I kind of love this movie.” And then went “I WAS JUST THINKING THAT.” It’s Valentine’s Day in Seattle and Ally’s job and love life are both going horribly. While she gets stuck in a rivals to lovers rom com plotline, little does she know she’s also being stalked by the Heart Eyes Killer. If you like the movie Happy Death Day, then you need to run, not walk to this. It’s got the exact same vibes. It’s silly, it’s fun, it’s both a great horror movie AND a great rom com. I think this is going on my list of ‘Need a Cheer Up’ films. LOVE IT.
Were you looking for some body horror? Cause have I got a movie for you. Chinese exchange student Wei gets a scholarship to a university in Auckland and all she wants to do is continue her late father’s research into skin grafts. Unfortunately, her cousin thinks she’s lame, she can’t fit into college life and her advisor is a dick. But the skin grafts? Well, they are something. This is like The Substance mixed with Face-Off. It gets a little silly towards the middle, lots of murders, lots of using questionable science to impersonate other people, a lot of peeling faces off. It’s got some things to say about culture and beauty standards and misogyny. But it’s also a lot so definitely prepare yourself.
And with that, I sign off for February. Fingers crossed when you next hear from me I will either be on the East Coast or near to being there. Still unsure on dates. More to come, I promise!
If you want to support me, you know what to do. 💕